The Battleship Challenge
by Snugglesthefluffykitten
Summary: I'm not the best soldier in the Navy, so I often screw up, leaving Admiral alyssialui furious. This is a serious of one-shots that are results of my failures to strike the enemy in our Battleship challenge on the Avatar Challanges Forum. Rated T to be safe, may post a different one for stories I deem M.


**AN: This is for the "Battleship Challenge" on our forum. I had to write an Angst and the first thing that came to mind was Mai. I have never written an Angst before, so I doubt this will be a very good example of one. I apologize in advance. **_**Lo siento mucho.**_

_**WARNING! **_**This chapter contains personal injuries, attempted suicide and angst, all of which were done _very_ badly! Read at your own risk!**

* * *

Mai's life is nothing short of a pile of platypus bear dung. Okay, maybe that's a bit _too _extreme, but her life could be _a lot _better. Mai never goes outside. She can't; her parents lock her in her room all day, every single day. They have never once said why, but she's grown up in this small room. This little room, complete with torn wallpaper that is as black as space.

All day, every day, she sits in this little room of hers and waits and waits and waits. What she waits for, she doesn't know, but she knows when she's done waiting, her life will never been the same. Her parents didn't want her to get bored, so they gave her throwing knives to practice with. Many of the neighborhood parents hate Mai's parents for allowing her to play with sharp object alone in her room, but the parents justify it, saying it's teaching her self defense in case anyone broke into her room in order to kidnap her.

Mai hates the parents that act as her guards. She hates the room that acts as her cell. She hates the house that acts as her prison. She hates the yard she can never go to that acts as her prison yard. To vent out her frustration, she throws knives at the wall. Something about tossing blades at the wall makes her feel better about herself.

One day, she sits on her bed, tossing more knives at the wallpaper that has finally begun to fall off. Sighing, she picks the lock to her door and slips downstairs, wishing to notify her parents about the necessary replacement. She reaches the living room, where her parents are sitting with a teenage boy around her age.

"What are you doing, young lady?!" He dad demands.

"The wallpaper's-" Mai starts.

"GO TO YOUR ROOM THIS INSTANCE!" Her mom roars. Mai's face scrunches, and the girl stomps to her room. Her parents follow her, locking the door behind their daughter. After seeing the boy who was with her parents, Mai puts her ear against the vent on the floor of her room, hoping to listen to their conversation.

"She's very shy." Her mom says. "Are you sure you're fine with that?"

"As long as it'll get my parent to shut up, I'll marry anyone." The boy says. "And my parents will pay you handsomely."

Mai's eyes widen as she continues to listen. Her parents plan on marrying her off to a boy she saw for two seconds, just so they can make a quick buck!

Mai hears footsteps coming to her room. Thinking fast, she plunges a dagger into her skin and screams. Her parents burst into the door and rush over to their neglected daughter.

"What happened?" Her dad asked.

"I-I was throwing the knives, and one of them bounced off the wall and hit me!"Mai exclaimed.

"Oh my…" Her mom says. "Honey, try and stop the bleeding, I'll find a first-aid kit!" Her mom rushes out of the room while her dad rummages around, looking for something to stop the bleeding. Mai's dad finds some torn wallpaper that could possibly be used as a temporary cover. He picks it up and walks over to his daughter. When he sees what she's doing, he drops the wallpaper.

His daughter has a knife to her own throat!  
"What are you doing?" He shouts, his wife coming back into the room.

"I heard your talk with this fellow here," Mai says. 'And I'm _not_ marrying him."

Mai's mom steps forward. "Yes, you are. And there's nothing you can do about it."

Mai's grip on the knife tightens. "Try me."

"You're bluffing." Her dad says. "You wouldn't really kill yourself because you didn't want to marry someone."

"Do you really want to find out what I would and wouldn't do?" Mai says.

The boy steps forward. 'Baby, please-"

"DON'T YOU ARE CALL ME BABY!" Mai roars. She barely moves the knife. "I don't know who you are or why you want to marry me, but go away!"

Nobody moves, so Mai moves the knife a little again, cringing with each stroke. "This isn't a bluff. I suggest you all go away."

"Why Mai?" Her mom asks. "Why would you do this?"

"Because none of you love me." Mai says. "All you care about is yourselves. You never speak to me, never even let me out of my room, and then you expect me to marry someone I don't even know! Why should I listen to any of you?"

"We are you parents, and you will do as we say!" her dad yells. Nobody moves, nobody blinks, nobody breathes. That is, until something from out caused the room to glow orange. Looking out the window, Mai sees a boy with messy black hair punching and kicking around, blasting fire. The boy looks into Mai's window, smirks and shoots a blast of fire. Mai jumps to the floor moments before the window explodes, erupts the room with orange light and sends glass flying. Mai smiles as she hears the screams of people around her. She pops her head out the window where the boy stands.

"Hey, Mai!" He yells. "I finally learned how to do it!"

"And not a moment too soon, Zuko!" Mai yells back. "My parents were about to marry me off to someone I've never met!"

"I know! I saw the whole thing!"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"I want you to jump out the window and come with me!"

Mai's eyes widen. Her waiting has finally paid off. "Where would we go?"

Zuko walks closer to the window. "Anywhere you want. A place far, far from your awful parents."

"I'd love to go!" Mai says. "But… I can't. I'm trapped in here."

"Jump!" Zuko says.

"Are you insane?" Mai exclaims.

Zuko's arms widen. "I'll catch you!" He promises. "Trust me! Jump, then we can leave!"

Mai looks at her parents and the boy they wanted her to marry one last time. "Goodbye, losers." She says, climbing into the window. "I always hated you." She takes a deep breath, then leaps. Just like Zuko promised, he caught the pale girl, then gently set her on the ground.

The two begin to walk across Mai's prison courtyard, far away from her prison.

"If I hadn't shown up and saved the day," Zuko says. "Would you have actually killed yourself?"

"If you hadn't shown up…" Mai repeats. "If you hadn't shown up… If you hadn't shown up…"

Zuko raises an eyebrow. "Mai? Are you alright?"

"If you hadn't shown up, I don't know what I would've done."

"Guess it's a good thing I did."

"Yeah." Mai nods.  
"Did you really hate them?"

Mai nods again. "All three of them. And if they ever come looking for me, they'll regret it."

* * *

**AN: So there you have it. Worst angst ever. Not really much angst except for the attempted suicide part, but I think that's more than enough.**


End file.
